You are not naive. The basis of much religion is the "subjection" of animals, and also of women and children, because they are physically weaker and less able to protect themselves. However, you really missed your cue, according to the bible, god gave us "dominion" over animals. In no way is this intended to be translated to "absolute power," that is, it does not give us the right to abuse, torture, and murder billions of animals as we do every day in factory farming and laboratories any more than having dominion over your children gives you the right to torture and kill them.

We are supposed to be intelligent enough to justify having a caretaker's kind of role toward animals, but unfortunately our intelligence has not yet developed enough to the point where we understand that it does not give us a wholesale right to the terrible things we actually do as a race. We are, truly, at the beginning of time, and cruelty has permeated all of human existence in so many ways. Will we ever truly become advanced enough to stop all the cruelty? That's really the big question.